CC Minutes - 07/27/11 Work Session

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Mayor Piercy invited comment from the TRG members. Ms. Nelson hoped the TRG could work out the issues that remained in regard to the partially vacant land analysis to avoid future community controversy. Mr. Duncan concurred. He emphasized the expertise that TRG members had gained and thanked Ms. Nelson for the research she had done to help the subcommittee understand State law as it related to the issue of partially vacant lands. He believed the work the subcommittee had done was innovative and would have far-reaching implications. Ms. Prichard added that the term “partially vacant” was not defined by the State, and it was up to Eugene to determine what it meant for its purposes. The issue was very complex. She said the subcommittee’s work was ground-breaking. Mr. Boles agreed. He said the subcommittee was wrestling with some difficult issues, including the ambiguity of State law. He reported that the TRG had another subcommittee working on the housing mix at a spreadsheet level to generate data from the assumptions and that group was awaiting results of the Partially Vacant Land Subcommittee’s work. Mr. Boles asked the council to consider the housing mix in light of all of the Seven Pillars of Envision Eugene. He said the housing mix was not merely an economic development or housing issue. The mix also spoke to the community’s quality of life and its ability to sustain itself across time in the face of diminishing resources. Mayor Piercy expressed appreciation for the TRG’s ground-breaking work. Ms. Taylor suggested that multi-family housing was more likely to be affordable than single-family. Mr. Dedrick said that housing affordability was a hot topic of discussion among TRG members. The TRG wanted to ensure its assumptions were backed with facts. Ms. Prichard added that new construction of any kind was going to be more expensive than not. That did not mean such construction should not occur because it resulted in a stock of more affordable older housing. She believed that truly affordable multi- family housing was only possible with massive subsidies. Mr. Duncan said he had discussed the topic with staff of the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) and the Housing and Urban Development as well as a planner from Newburg who completed a study of affordability in that community. There did not seem to be any empirical information that supported the assumption multi-family housing was more affordable. However, DLCD staff considered it a given fact. He had reviewed studies that were focused on much larger communities such as Atlanta and Detroit that indicated an increase in multi-family helped affordability, but those communities had longer travel distances and other considerations not applicable to Eugene. He said the TRG would continue to study the issue. Mr. Boles noted that Eugene lacked a modeling system that allowed the TRG to see how aged housing was absorbed by different income levels. Ms. Taylor clarified that she was not talking about subsidized housing but rather housing that was accessible to different income groups. She asked if the TRG had discussed inclusionary zoning. Mr. Boles said the TRG had not discussed that as a group. He considered inclusionary zoning to be a strategy, and the TRG was at the pre-strategy level as it was working on the capacity issue. Ms. Taylor hoped the council received a minority report from the TRG. Mr. Boles responded that the TRG was trying to avoid a minority/majority report and instead was attempting to capture the concerns of all members regardless of their political point of view. Ms. Gardner emphasized the goal of the Community Resource Group and the TRG was to build agreement. MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 27, 2011 Page 2 Work Session